


#66: Spooky Sounds

by alittlefellowinawideworld



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 12:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16475750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alittlefellowinawideworld/pseuds/alittlefellowinawideworld
Summary: My short entry for the DGHDA Spookfesr on tumblr.Farah searches for her friend and their mysterious sounding foe





	#66: Spooky Sounds

A strong wind pawed at the windows of the house, like an impatient animal seeking entrance. The house shifted and sighed in return, disturbed from a rest of many long years. If there was anyone else in this cavernous house, the wind was masking any sound. Piled amidst the jumbled noisome clutter of creaks and squeaks and dust covered pauses, it also would have been impossible to pick out the steady but quick steps of Farah Black. She was sure to carefully tread along the inner seams of the stairs where the wood did not groan under her feet. Gun in hand, because she never needs to learn a lesson twice.

The last time she had entered a strange property had lead to her unwilling stay at the Ridgley, at the hand of body swapping occultists. Farah had rushed in too quickly, too noisily, knowing it was foolish but letting her fear for someone she cared about overwhelm her good sense. 

Just like with Lydia, Dirk sent her a cryptic text that had sent Farah running. Well, a cryptic pin of his gps location, followed by several gifs of a cartoon cat that was also an astronaut. Either a few last stubborn nanites had found refuge within her friend’s phone and were still trying to make contact from last week, or there was a lead in their new case. A lead in a ramshackle abandoned house on a hill, because of course. Dirk’s phone had gone straight to voicemail when she tried to call. Todd’s was still on his desk back at the office, likely forgotten in the ever pressing rush to solve whatever puzzle landed on their lap this week. Fairies or time travel or possessed jukeboxes…

Farah slowly turned the first doorknob on the landing, clockwise according to the hinges and applying upward pressure in order to minimise the noise.   
This is what she is good at. Farah’s life may have turned upon its head, facing new threats that she could never have possibly imagined when she was with Patrick. But in any situation, Farah knows how to be a professional. Whatever the Universe throws at her, she will keep her friends safe. 

Her face displayed none of the quiet satisfaction she allowed herself as the heavy door pivoted smoothly with the barest whine of protest. A few quick and practiced glances revealed neither friends nor threat. Her patrol of the house was silent and sure. 

That same silence shattered as a short and sharp yell of panic from upstairs sent her thundering up the next flight of steps. As she ran, Farah could hear new sounds. Several thumbs, some scrabbling noises, and ever louder screaming. 

“Stop dancing at it, you’re freaking them out more!”

“I’m a professional, Todd, I was trained by the CIA in the art of hypnos-OW” A rapid clicking sort of sound. Squids again? Or, no, she could hear a prolonged hiss now. And barking? 

“TODD! DIRK!”

“FARAH!”

Thumping sounds now, coming from behind a door at the end of the hall. 

“Shit, they’re fast! FARAH! WE’RE LOCKED IN AND WE FOUND A NEST OF-AH! SHIT!”

That decided it. Farah reached the door and called a quick warning, “Stand aside!” before she kicked in the door. The first thing she saw was not her two companions or any malevolent poltergeist. Instead, she found a small gang of angry and very confused squirrels. Squirrels that ceased hissing at the two men next to her and seemed to decide the best way out of this mess was through her and the now open door. 

With a shriek, Farah made a tactical retreat, grabbing Todd and Dirk and yanking them all back through the archway as Todd grabbed the handle and pulled the door with them. He slumped against the wall, his jacket wrapped like a shield around his arm and his hair sporting bits of dust and leaves. Dirk flung his entire body against the door and peered through the splintered wood along the edge at their still chittering and hissing captives. 

“Oh, that was very much a dead end! A dead end and a deadly room and very much not part of the case, if those incredibly unhelpful rodents are anything to go by!”

“Dirk,” Farah interjected, before he could build up any steam,”Where’s your phone?”

“He threw it at the squirrel!”

“Well, that’s worked for me in the past! And anyway, you’re the one that opened the closet, Todd-”

“Let’s investigate, Todd” you said!” “That scratching sound has to be a clue, Todd, it’s your ‘assistantly duty’ to go first, Todd!”

Their argument was cut short when a pronounced thump and metallic rattle sounded behind Dirk’s back.

“THEY’VE WORKED OUT THE DOORKNOB!” 

No one bothered to to second guess this intuitive leap, everyone scrambled down the hall to put as much space between themselves and this room of horrors as possible. Later there would be much heroic reenactment and laughter and arguments over squirrel intelligence, but for now the three intrepid detectives left the decrepit old house to its new terrifying owners.


End file.
